Fracking poses hazards to human endocrine systems

[caption id="attachment_21954" align="alignleft" width="300"] Fracking site[/caption]

Carol Forsloff---“I'd just move out. I figure I'd have enough money to do that. So no problem,” was the answer a rural landowner gave to a journalist's inquiry about the impact of “fracking” on his land in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana and the future of that land, including the potential for water contamination and other environmental issues.

That response from the landowner, however, overlooks an important issue. Even those who move away from the area, collecting their money or “rents” for use of the land by contractors establishing natural gas facilities, can have continuing health problems related to the initial use of the land. These health problems can follow an individual or family in permanent ways, as established by health and environmental research.

“Fracking” is the abbreviated term for a type of natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. New research has established that many of the chemicals used in the process can disrupt the body's hormones. That recent has recently been accepted for publication in Endocrinology, the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

What researchers have determined is that these chemicals interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system. These chemicals which are formally called endocrine-disrupting chemicals or EDCS are found in manufactured products such as those in certain foods, air, water and soil. However, these become more intensive in the fracking process. Research has established EDC exposure is linked to health problems such as infertility, cancer and birth defects.

One of the study's authors, Susan C. Nagel, PhD of the University of Missouri School of Medicine says, “With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure.”

What are those long-range concerns for the public interest? Nagel in some ways answers the question as she told interviewers, “Fracking is exempt from federal regulations to protect water quality, but spills associated with natural gas drilling can contaminate surface, ground and drinking water. We found more endocrine-disrupting activity in the water close to drilling locations that had experienced spills than at control sites. This could raise the risk of reproductive, metabolic, neurological and other diseases, especially in children who are exposed to EDCs.”

Other study authors include: C.D. Kassotis, J.W. Davis and A.M. Hormann of the University of Missouri and D.E. Tilitt of the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

Earthquakes a ticking bomb from "fracking" and nuclear power

[caption id="attachment_14981" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hanford plant - wikimedia commons[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - While politicians claim they know the answers to the nation's energy needs,  risks to people and their environment remain of serious concern to scientists, especially those risks involving earthquakes, death and disease from the processes that had been once touted as safe.

Worries regarding the San Onofre reactor in California, recently shut down because of a radiation leak and damaged equipment,  have once again caused scientists to worry about the nuclear waste and the active reactor at Hanford in Eastern Washington as well.

While folks in California are watching what happens to the nuclear energy issues, hydraulic fracturing has been in the headlines too.  Hydraulic fracturing is the process used to extract natural gas, an optional energy source that has been highly touted by the oil and gas industries.  But concerns about the environmental damage caused by this process has caused more and more people to wonder what's the solution for finding new energy and whether or not it is worth the risks to the environment to have nuclear energy and hydraulic fracturing as methods of meeting the growing demand for energy.

On April 5 Common Dreams reported that a  US Geological Survey research team has determined that the process of drilling for oil and natural gas is responsible for many of the earthquakes that have occurred in the United States from Alabama to the Northern Rockies.

In the Pacific Northwest there are folks who continue to raise concerns about the Hanford Nuclear Plant in Eastern Washington State.  While most of the reactors were shut down many years ago, there remains a consistent concern that the nuclear waste and lack of safety precautions and proper oversight will continue to create the potential for a major disaster that could impact the Columbia River, a waterway that feeds into much of the Oregon - Washington lands.

Hanford, Washington is the site of the nation's first full-scale plutonium development facility.

In 1962 farmers reported many of their animals were born with severe deformities and nightmarish effects to function that became increasingly a concern for the residents surrounding the nuclear plant as well as people who lived in regions bordering on Canada.

240,000 people live in the immediate areas surrounding Hanford.   People talked about miscarriages, birth defects and rare diseases impacting children that increased following the development of the plant at Hanford.  Spiegel Online reports the story of a family's experience related to the time when in the 1960's,  when a farmer's wife, Juanita Andrewjewski,  created a "death map" of the area near her house.  She put crosses for heart disease and circles for cancer on that map.   Not long after this map was created, 67 people had been affected with these diseases.

Stewart Udall called Hanford the "most tragic chapter in American Cold War history."  He was Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Initially folks took pride in the fact that Hanford had been chosen as the jewel in the crown of nuclear development, but that pride soon turned into great fear.  As Spiegel reports, residents of the Tri-Cities of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, " are among the most highly radiated humans on earth."

Although Hanford closed down in 1989, it continues to have a live reactor as well as nuclear waste.  Only half of the waste has been entombed at a price in the billions, as the project of decontamination continues.  Nevertheless, the potential leaks and the age of the material and equipment pose substantial risks, and it will take approximately 15 more years of the decontamination process to complete the housing of the nuclear waste.

210 earthquakes happened in the Hanford area during 2010, the strongest measuring 3.0. But the fact that these earthquakes aren't so severe is not reassuring to environmental scientists and others. "The leaking underground tanks and the contaminated groundwater moving toward the river mean a radioactive future for the river unless the mess can be cleaned up in time to avoid a serious radiological disaster," says Glen Spain, a regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). "The legacy of vast amounts of nuclear waste … is still a ticking time bomb."

Water imperiled by 'fracking' in drought of Ark-La-Tex

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Carol Forsloff - Texas is going through a period of record-breaking drought, a situation that has caused massive wildfires; and two attorneys are challenging hydraulic fracturing because of its negative impact on water.

While the EPA continues to investigate the issues surrounding “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing, a process used in drilling for natural gas,  Ark-La-Tex  folks have reason to worry because of the process of pumping water and chemicals into the ground to break up shale rock, which is the process used to extract natural gas.  These questions are of concern to environmentalists who have witnessed problems in Pennsylvania and other states from efforts to drill for gas.  In fact Chesapeake Energy has suspended drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania in April 2011 after a large spill of toxic fluid into a natural waterway there.

The lack of sufficient water is now the main concern in Texas.  As the attorneys point out, it requires millions of gallons of water to open a single well.

“When news reports say the current drought is now the most severe since record-keeping began 116 years ago, it is time to reassess all discretionary uses of water,” said Arnold,  one of the Houston lawyers involved in litigation against some of the companies that have allegedly polluted water and lands of their clients.

“If you’re using millions of gallons of water in a process that is suspect in the first place, that’s certainly a place to cut back, if not a practice to consider suspending until the drought eases.”

Arnold & Itkin LLP,  the law firm involved, has represented clients who have had land contaminated through the fracking process.    A law requiring companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process goes into effect in 2012, but the attorneys are worried about the problem now because of the Texas drought.

As the attorneys point out,  “Fracking remains a potentially dangerous and, during a drought, wasteful practice.  “While water conservation is a civic duty we can advocate, refraining from contaminating groundwater and endangering people is a legal duty that we are certainly ready to take action to see enforced,” Arnold said.

According to climate experts, approximately 20% of the United States is experiencing drought. In  Texas - Lousiana – Arkansas, the drilling for natural gas is part of what is called the Haynesville Shale.  Proponents of natural gas exploration tout the area as being the biggest  gold mine of gas in the country.  Louisiana, already having been under siege on the Gulf from oil seepage into the soil and waters of the coast, has been one of the states where politicians and business folks in oil and gas have been most vocal about the positive opportunities afforded from natural gas.

In Natchitoches Parish, for example, there have been grand rallies in support of natural gas drilling, and big deals have included large parcels of land, including Northwestern University.

But Texas attorneys are warning of the risks of fracking to the water supply, given the dry conditions.  They underline the continuing threats of fire and reduction of clean water from a process they say imperils folks who are not conscious of the problems that hydraulic fracturing can cause.